Letters

I was fascinated to read Nick Greenslade's portrait of Nick Faldo (Learning to Smile, July). Should we care that Faldo was unpopular among his fellow players? I think not. What mattered to Faldo was not popularity, or even domestic contentment (as his three divorces testify), it was being the best - not simply the best in Britain, but a player who could win major championships (he won six, and should perhaps have won more, including at least one US Open) and dominate world golf. In one sense, he willed himself to be great. It was not enough for him, as it is for so many British sports stars, to be rich and safe and happy. And so, fanatically determined, he worked and he worked. Now, he has reinvented himself as a wise-cracking talking head on the American sports netw orks. He likes to play the role of joker and fool. As a golfer he was nothing of the kind.

Jack Curtis, via email

A timely investigation

Like thousands of other cricket fans, I tried to follow the police investigation into Bob Woolmer's death. The barrage of theories and counter-theories - which seemed to appear and disappear on an almost daily basis - came so thick and fast that it was all but impossible to keep up, and I soon lost track. So I am grateful for Mark Townsend's excellent article last month (Special Report, July).

It was illuminating finally to read an unsensationalised and well researched account, exposing the flaws in the investigation that led to the premature 'verdict' of murder. Thanks, Mark; if only the Jamaican authorities had shared your sober and analytical approach, we might have been spared the undignified mess that added unnecessarily to the tragedy of Woolmer's death.

Ben Horslen, London

The grass is greener

Jason Cowley asked last month (Golf Dreams, July): 'Is there any sport at which you can improve, and then keep on improving, after the age of 40?' Well, there is: the very game he disparaged later in the piece when he wrote, 'I wasn't ready to take up bowls. That, surely, would have been the death of hope.'

More fool you, Mr Cowley. It is a game as challenging as any other and one played by thousands of your more mature readers and, increasingly, by under-40s too. I am 70 but still hope to improve at the game. Trevor Moore, Suffolk

Editor's note: I apologise for what was, I agree, a lazy joke.

A case of misdirection

Jamelia's fiance, Darren Byfield, is not 'a footballer for an East End Club'. He plays for Millwall. The fact that we are three minutes from London Bridge Station, and our postal code is SE16, are just two of the reasons why we are most definitely a football club based in south-east London. Stewart Till, chairman, Millwall FC

The other Wasim

In his review of Wasim Khan's book 'Brim Full of Passion' (Reviews, July), Nick Greenslade refers slightingly to Wasim's 'undistinguished' cricket career. It is true that he tore up few trees when he was at either Sussex or Derbyshire. However, when he played for Warwickshire, double champions in 1995, he scored 740 runs in 12 innings, and averaged 46.25 to be third in their batting averages, bettered only by Nick Knight and Trevor Penney.

Michael Jeanes, Daventry

The godfather, part II

To Geoffrey Mortlake (Review, July): thank you. Thank you one thousand times over for giving me such a hearty, sustained, self-refreshing laugh this morning just when I needed it. Your piece on Clive James (whom I admire) featured my all-time dream sportswoman, Gabriela Sabatini, to whom I, too, have been a fantasy godfather, but I suppose it would be improper for us to fight over the job.

Mike Flanagan, via email

Blue's not the colour

With Manchester United and Arsenal (with a little break from Chelsea) winning the Premiership for the last few years and Liverpool dominating before that, is red the most successful colour for an English football team to wear?